


Pica, or growing up hungry

by Cherry_Sofa_729



Series: Unfortunate Circumstances [6]
Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Angst, Eating Disorders, Eating inedible things, Eating trash, Gen, Kid Dark Creativity | Remus "The Duke" Sanders, Kid Fic, Light Angst, No Plot/Plotless, OCD tendencies, Parent Deceit | Janus Sanders, Parent-Child Relationship, Parenthood, Pica, Poverty, eating dirt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-07
Updated: 2021-02-07
Packaged: 2021-03-12 19:27:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 687
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29265771
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cherry_Sofa_729/pseuds/Cherry_Sofa_729
Summary: Remus has many options when it comes to food
Series: Unfortunate Circumstances [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2050605
Comments: 3
Kudos: 58





	Pica, or growing up hungry

**Author's Note:**

> This is darker than usual for this series so Read the tags!

Remus munched on lots of things!

Apples. He loved apples. They were sweet and tart, and since they had an apple tree in the backyard they were always plentiful. (Though the tree some years wouldn’t bear much, or any, fruit.)

Potatoes. Mmm! He especially loved them mashed. Creamy and thick. (And filling. Potatoes never left his stomach rumbling)

Chicken. Chicken was fantastic! Meaty and tender, and he liked watching mama whack the chicken’s head off and pluck out all its feathers. (So what if the chickens were usually scrawny and more bones than meat)

Dirt. He loved dirt because it was always there.He could find it in the garden, on the forest floor, even sometimes inside the house. 

Leaves. Leaves off forest trees were always there and were crunchy and crisp. 

Soaps. Soap made him burp up bubbles in all sorts of colours. 

Mama often told him to stop putting things in his mouth. Well, if that’s what mama wanted Remus should get more snacks. He couldn’t help that he was meant to be a dragon beast, that was like- 30 feet tall and super strong. He couldn’t help being hungry. 

So dirt it was. Usually. Dirt was accessible, filling and he liked the taste. 

Because he didn’t want to go bother mama anymore. He didn’t want to sneak into the cupboards late at night only to find them empty. He didn’t want to upset mama by asking for something they didn’t have. 

Remus wasn’t stupid. Mama definitely thought he was, but he could observe the obvious right in front of his face. 

He knew they were poor. “Food insecurity” was the word Thomas heard at school when they were doing the annual food drive. It meant they didn’t always have enough to eat. 

He knew walls weren’t supposed to have cracks in them, water was supposed to be hot if you wanted it to be, and your baby brother wasn’t supposed to sleep in a closet. 

But mama tried so hard to keep it hidden from them, to provide for them, that Remus felt guilty asking for more than he got. 

Whenever he did he was called a brat anyway. 

He knew he was supposed to be bigger than he was. Something about the way his bones creaked and spoke to him.  _ Feed us.  _ They said.  _We want to grow._

It happen most often at night, where he’d toss and turn and never get comfortable, not with his stomach growling and bones whispering to him. 

_ Just go eat dirt.  _

He didn’t want dirt. He was sick of dirt. 

_ There’s food scraps in the compost bin.  _

That’s right! Like the crusts of bread and chicken bones. Maybe even a banana peel, but they hadn’t had bananas recently. 

He carefully opened his room door and snuck downstairs. 

The compost bin was always a treasure trove of tasty treats. He cracked it open, didn’t even notice the smell before taking out his first prize- chicken bones. 

Now, most eight year olds would not be able to bite through a chicken bone. Remus was not most people. His sharp teeth were made for this kind of thing. 

He broke the bone into smaller pieces and swallowed. Mmm. Calcium. His favourite thing to do with the chicken bones was to snap them in half and dig out that wonderful marrow. 

(Of course, these bones had already been made into stock, so they were pretty soft and flavourless, but Remus hadn’t cared about flavour in a while.)

Then he had the crusts of bread and a couple apple cores before washing that down with a glass of water. He went back upstairs with a much more comfortable and fuller belly. 

He didn’t know why he didn’t get sick. That’s what mama always said would happen if he kept eating inedible things, but his stomach would hardly twinge. 

Still, he always rubbed his belly three times clockwise and four times counterclockwise after eating something inedible, so he could stop the thoughts of his stomach exploding. 

He got comfortable under his blankets and slowly fell asleep, dreaming of mud pies and lava cakes. 


End file.
